Dolly Parton breaks her silence and addresses the death of her husband Carl Dean

Dolly Parton released her first public statement and shared a "love note" to all her supporters after her husband Carl Dean's death. The country star said that she is grateful for everyone who has reached out to her in various ways since her husband passed away earlier this week. In an Instagram post on Thursday, March 6, 2025, she wrote,

"This is a love note to family, friends, and fans. Thank you for all the messages, cards, and flowers that you've sent to pay your respects for the loss of my beloved husband Carl. I can't reach out personally to each of you but just know it has meant the world to me."

Dolly Parton addressed the death of her 82-year-old husband in her statement and wrote,

"He is in God's arms now and I am okay with that. I will always love you."

The Jolene hitmaker's Instagram post comes after she announced her husband's death in a statement shared on her Instagram on March 4, 2025. He reportedly died on Monday, March 3, 2025, in Nashville, but the statement didn't share his cause of death.

Parton wrote that she and Carl "spent many wonderful years together" and that "words can't do justice to the love" that they shared throughout their 60 years of marriage.

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Dolly Parton's late husband, Carl Dean, was so private and a "loner" that people thought she made him up

Carl Dean, despite being married to Dolly Parton, always stayed out of the spotlight. The desire to keep away from his wife's celebrity world made him even more popular, especially among her fans. However, once upon a time, people believed that Parton only made up her husband and that he wasn't real because of how private he was.

In her 2020 memoir, Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics, the country star said that Carl Dean's private demeanor,

"led to a lot of people to believe that my husband doesn't exist and that I made him up."

Back in a 2016 interview with People, Dolly Parton described Carl Dean as someone who was a "loner," adding,

"He doesn't particularly care about being around anybody but me. He's just always asked me to leave him out of all this. He does not like all the hullabaloo."

She also described her late husband at the time as someone who is "very secure of himself, adding that he never got jealous of her rotating cast of handsome co-stars or her stardom. However, on the celebration of their 50th wedding anniversary in 2016, they married in 1966, Carl Dean gave a rare interview with Entertainment Tonight.

He recalled how his first thought after seeing Parton outside the Wishy Washy Laundromat many years ago was that he was going to marry her. Carl Dean also admitted that his second thought was, 'Lord she's good lookin'," and that was when his life began, he said.

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After dating for two years, Dolly Parton and Carl Dean married on May 30, 1966, in a private ceremony with only the two of them and the preacher, per Entertainment Tonight. They didn't have a child together.